Upstate New York Nursing Home Fires Two Employees After Disturbing Sexual Incident

Northgate Health Care Facility has fired two nurse’s aides following a disturbing incident involving the employees and two elderly, mentally impaired residents of the facility. According to a NYS Department of Health report, the employees placed the two residents in the same bed together and told them that they were married, hoping to elicit a physical response from the residents. Security cameras captured the events. One of the residents is diagnosed with mild mental retardation, while the other is both blind and suffers from dementia. The workers are no longer legally allowed to work in similar nursing home environments.

As common sense and decency would dictate, if all allegations are true, the two employees involved in this incident are guilty of any number of violations of public health codes, as well as state and federal regulations. The residents’ quality of life, personal rights, and safe living environment have all been severely compromised. Additionally, although the Department of Health has conceded that Northgate acted properly in reporting the incident, the home’s hiring practices certainly must be questioned. Furthermore, reporting the incident and handling it in a timely fashion does not excuse the home from the violations. It is the responsibility of the facility to prohibit mistreatment and abuse of residents. In this case, it would appear that the facility failed in this charge.